The present disclosure relates to additive manufacturing and, more particularly, to a core with an additively manufactured portion for use in casting an internal cooling circuit within a gas turbine engine component.
Gas turbine engines typically include a compressor section to pressurize airflow, a combustor section to burn a hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of the pressurized air, and a turbine section to extract energy from the resultant combustion gases. Gas path components, such as turbine blades, often include airfoil cooling that may be accomplished by external film cooling, internal air impingement and forced convection either separately or in combination.
Advances in casting facilitate significantly smaller and more complex passages to accommodate elevated temperatures with a reduced flow of cooling air, yet relatively small features remain difficult, if not impossible, to cast via a conventional core casting process in an efficient and repeatable manner.